Officials Warn of Drug-Laced Candy on Halloween

Law enforcement agencies and a UVA toxicologist warn that candy and snacks packaged to look like popular treats have been found laced with THC and psychedelic mushrooms, and one field test briefly raised concern for fentanyl (later negative on confirmatory testing). The UVA toxicologist says cannabis edibles — commercial and homemade — pose the greater Halloween risk because they often resemble candy; poison center calls for children ingesting edibles rose from 816 in 2018 to 6,888 in 2023, and the Blue Ridge Poison Center is handling roughly 150–200 related cases. Recent local incidents include Michigan police finding large bags of deceptively packaged, drug-laced snacks and a Copley Township, Ohio, child who found a green-wrapped sucker suspected of containing cannabis. Florida police reported brightly colored gumball-like candy that field-tested for fentanyl but later tested negative on confirmatory analysis, underscoring both real and perceived dangers. Officials say parents should inspect and discard unwrapped or suspicious items, supervise trick-or-treating, and call poison control or 911 immediately if exposure is suspected.